1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to sports boots known as "rigid shell" boots, having an upper, shaped like a tube and capable of being opened along the front, said upper being connected by lateral journals to a shell base, and capable of being stopped, during a rearward pivoting, by means of its lower bordering that takes support along an edge of the shell base, such edge extending between the journals of the upper, at least in the hell zone of the shell base.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
As illustrated in the examples of FIGS. 1 and 2, known sports boots of the aforementioned sort, such as ski boots, generally have an upper 1 shaped like a tube and are openable along the front, said upper being journaled 2, along the sides of a shell base 3, whose heel zone 4, at least, is provided with an edge 5 against which the lower bordering 6 of upper 1 takes support, and is thus stopped in its rearward pivoting. In there boots, among other things, the upper 1 that is openable along the front, constitutes the rear support means of the skier by virtue of its own stiffness and its rearward blocking, and thus enables the skier to control his front-to-rear balance, and the transmission of stresses in the direction of the tail of the ski. In order to ensure that the quality of the rear support provided is in harmony with the technical ability of the skier and the type of skiing being envisioned, i.e., competitive skiing or leisure skiing, the upper 1 of these boots, and especially the dorsal zone 7 thereof, is kept relatively non-deformable and stiff, as has been illustrated in FIG. 1, or instead, is capable of getting elastically deformed, as has been illustrated in FIG. 2. Indeed, it can be noted that when the issue at hand is competitive skiing where speeds are high and the course trajectory is predetermined, the skier must perceive the smallest variations in his supports almost instantaneously in order to react appropriately, and that only a rigid upper that can be blocked towards the rear on the shell base can, on the one hand, render detectable and amplify small variations, and on the other hand, transmit the impulses without any loss of force and within a short space of time. In comparison, when the issue at hand is leisure skiing where speeds are slower than in competitions, an where the there are no course-related limitations because the skier is free to select his own path, a less rigid upper, even one that is capable of being elastically deformed, proves to be well adapted, so that the skier perceives the variations of his supports on the upper in a timely manner and can react as a consequence thereto.
As such, in the example of the boot illustrated in FIG. 1, the upper 1 is shaped like a tube, openable along the front with a dorsal zone 7 all in one piece, so that its very shape provides substantial vertical rearward stiffness. This vertical stiffness is repeated at the level of the heel 4 of the shell base 3 by means of an edge 5, across from which can be found the lower edge or border 6 of said upper 1, extending substantially to the journals 2 of the latter. The various stiff or substantially resistant components of the boots are thus perfectly adjusted and blocked in any rearward pivoting, and are thus capable of transmitting the rear supports of the skier in the heel zone 4 without any loss of force and almost instantaneously. Consequently, such boots prove to be very precise and are relatively well suited for the practice of competitive skiing; however, they require that great caution be taken by the skier, and demand a certain level of technical ability from him. In fact, since variations in support are transmitted almost instantaneously to the skis and vice-versa, and the skis react as a result of these stresses, the skier is obliged to maintain extreme caution, and therefore cannot let himself go and/or adopt a more relaxed style. In fact, he finds himself in a situation that is closer to competitive skiing than leisure skiing. If, for instance, the skier's technical abilities are inadequate or he lacks speed, substantial stiffness of the upper constitutes a disadvantage to him because it tends to heighten his front-to-rear balancing defects.
Further, known boots of this type, openable along the front, are lacking in all adjustment means that could modify the stress towards the rear of their uppers. As such, the skier who wants to switch from a competition-like sports mode to a more relaxed, leisurely mode, is practically obliged to change boots and to choose boots that are less stiff. As an example, the boot of FIG. 2, which represents the "LOTUS" model that was marketed in 1979 under the RAICHLE brand name, is an illustration of a boot that is capable of providing a certain dampening of the rearward supports of the skier. In this boot, the upper 1 is equipped with a transverse slit 8 that extends from its dorsal zone 7 to its lateral journals 2. Thus, when the bottom part of the skier's leg takes rearward support, the dorsal zone 7 of upper 1 that is above slit 8, bends via elastic deformation by pivoting about its lateral journals 2 along with the lower part of the skier's leg. Consequently, the localization of over-pressure at the level of the upper bordering of upper 1 is avoided, and a portion of the stresses produced by the skier is absorbed by the rearward bending of the upper, which reduces the firmness of its support by that amount.
These types of boots that are openable along the front and have a shock absorbing upper are, therefore, well-suited to leisure skiing. However, a particular disadvantage lies in the fact that are confined to this area alone or, in other words, they have an upper that is non-adjustable or modifiable in rearward stiffness, as was the case in the previous example of boots that were openable along the front but were confined to the arena of competitive skiing.